Grand Valley State backups see valuable time during blowout win against Tiffin

ALLENDALE -- The Grand Valley State football team's 70-7 win against Tiffin on Saturday night at Lubbers Stadium did more than snap the Lakers' three-game losing streak.

It gave their backups some valuable game action for the first time since a season-opening 44-20 win against Western Oregon.

Perhaps no one benefited more than redshirt freshman quarterback Isiah Grimes, who relieved sophomore Heath Parling after the Lakers' first drive of the second half -- which ended with a 26-yard touchdown pass from Parling to Jovonne Augustus and gave Grand Valley State a 49-0 lead.

Grimes finished 6-for-9 for 102 yards, and had a 9-yard touchdown pass to redshirt freshman receiver Keontre' Miskel in the third quarter that made it 56-0.

Grimes did throw an interception that led to Tiffin's only touchdown midway through the fourth quarter, but Grand Valley State coach Matt Mitchell still was pleased with how the second-string offense played.

"Our philosophy is we're not just going to go in there and run the ball," Mitchell said. "Isiah Grimes is a good quarterback. Heath has won the quarterback battle, but Isiah has some skills, he's on scholarship and he's one snap away from being our guy.

"I was glad we had the opportunity for Isiah to get in there and do some things."

Mitchell also praised the play of Miskel, who had three catches for 50 yards, and sophomore running back Michael Ratay, who had four carries for 40 yards and scored on a 1-yard run to open the fourth quarter.

Sophomore running back Billy Seiler also carried the ball 14 times in the fourth for 85 yards and a 4-yard touchdown run that closed out the scoring.

"We put our second group in, we're going to run our offense. That's what we did for the majority of the third quarter," Mitchell said. "Same thing on defense. There are a couple things we wish we could have back, but we had a lot of redshirt freshmen on the field."

The second-string defense played the entire second half and actually gave up fewer total yards than the starters did, 104 to 114.

Among those who stood out were redshirt freshman linebacker Antonio Hutchins, who had six tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss, redshirt freshman defensive lineman Matt Judon, who had four tackles, one sack and broke up a pass, and redshirt freshman DeVonte' Jones, who had five tackles.

That kind of experience should only help the Lakers down the road.

"I think that's valuable for the short-term and the long-term of this program," Mitchell said.